Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel

L'Almanach 26 : Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel "The Wet Room"

Daniel Dewar (1976, United-Kingdom) and Grégory Gicquel (1975, France)

Daniel Dewar (1976, United Kingdom) and Grégory Gicquel (1975, France) met during their studies at the École des Beaux-Arts of Rennes and have worked together since. Their work was awarded the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2012. The Franco-British duo is renowned for its use of artisanal and sculptural techniques—including wood and stone carving, textiles, and ceramics—all of which the artists learned autodidactically. This process of technical appropriation forms an essential part of their artistic practice.

For “L’Almanach 26”, Daniel Dewar and Grégory Gicquel have created an ensemble comprising a monumental silk painting and several series of high-fired stoneware ceramics. Produced in their studios, the silk painting was made using a technique that allows water and pigments to circulate freely across the surface. The inks diffuse through the fabric’s fibres, creating textures and gradients that evoke the movements of aquatic environments. Unfolding across the walls, the composition brings together local species of fish and freshwater plants, including mirror carp, a catfish, common water-crowfoot, duckweed, and pondweed. 
The surface of the silk echoes the smooth skin of fish, while the movement of the hanging fabric suggests a current of water flowing through the exhibition space.

This humid universe extends into a group of wood-fired stoneware ceramics: pots, jars, a pitcher, a washbasin, and a bidet (vessels designed to contain liquids). Their glossy, sometimes dripping glazes evoke an aquatic world inhabited by snails and fragments of human bodies. Molluscs and mammals coexist on the surfaces of the sculptures, suggesting the possibility of interspecies cohabitation.

Finally, a sink suspended on the wall provides a key to interpreting the exhibition. Hand-modelled as a replica of an industrial object designed to channel water, it evokes the many ways in which human beings seek to organise and transform the natural elements that surround them.